Oakland and Alameda County have agreed to pay more than $1 million and reform their crowd-control policies to settle a lawsuit filed by 150 people who were arrested together -- and then held for hours -- while protesting the sentence given to the BART police officer who fatally shot Oscar Grant in 2009.
The federal class-action suit accused Oakland police of violating their own policies by failing to order demonstrators to disperse before "kettling" and arresting them on suspicion of unlawful assembly on Nov. 5, 2010, in a neighborhood east of Lake Merritt.
Instead of being cited and released for the misdemeanor offense, the protesters said, they were held in sheriff's department buses for hours while handcuffed, leading some people to urinate on the floor or themselves. Demonstrators were held overnight in crowded jail cells because deputies were overwhelmed by the number of arrestees.
The tentative $1.025 million settlement was announced by attorneys Monday and is expected to be finalized in September after approval by the individual plaintiffs. Alameda County has agreed to pay $175,000.
The deal -- which also requires the agencies to adopt policies for the "expeditious citation and release" of those arrested for low-level misdemeanors -- draws to a close the first of several suits filed against Oakland and Alameda County over mass arrests during rallies related to Grant's killing and Occupy Oakland.
Rachel Lederman, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild in San Francisco, which filed the suit that was recently settled, said she hoped the agreement would allow for unhindered First Amendment expression in Oakland.
But she said officers had repeatedly violated department procedures adopted in 2004 after a rally against the Iraq War outside the Port of Oakland. During the 2003 protest, officers fired nonlethal projectiles at protesters including wooden bullets, stinger grenades and beanbags.
Occupy Oakland
Oakland police were criticized by a court-appointed independent monitor for their response to Occupy Oakland protests in fall 2011, during which officers fired nonlethal munitions at demonstrators.
In January 2012, 409 people were unlawfully arrested after law-enforcement officers surrounded them without a dispersal order outside the YMCA on Broadway in Oakland, according to a separate lawsuit filed by eight Occupy Oakland protesters that is still pending.
Last fall, then-Police Chief Howard Jordan said he had ordered "major reforms" in how police deal with large crowds, including having smaller groups of officers go into crowds to weed out problem protesters.
Lederman said the settlement ensures federal court enforcement of the department's crowd-control policy for up to seven years.
Oakland police referred questions to the city attorney's office, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern said his deputies now have better technology and procedures to process arrestees in large protests. "We believe we'll be able to manage these large groups in a much more efficient manner," he said.
The protesters were rallying against the two-year sentence a Los Angeles judge handed down that day to former BART Officer Johannes Mehserle for fatally shooting Grant early New Year's Day 2009.
Marching to BART
After a peaceful rally outside Oakland City Hall, demonstrators tried to march to BART's Fruitvale Station, where Grant was killed, but were hemmed in by hundreds of police officers. The plaintiffs said police wrongfully arrested everyone present, including legal observers.
Police have said protesters smashed the windows of six cars, tore down fences, threw rocks and bottles at police, and fought with officers. Two businesses were damaged.
Ultimately, Deputy Chief Eric Breshears ordered Capt. David Downing to surround and arrest the protesters without declaring an unlawful assembly first, according to radio traffic obtained by the lawyers guild.
"The first opportunity you can, set up a surround to arrest," Breshears told Downing. "We'd like to employ that."
"Do we want to make announcements for unlawful assembly, or they're just already under arrest?" Downing, now a deputy chief, asked Breshears.
"Yeah, affirm, based on their activity over here and the fights that occurred and the vandalism that's occurred, affirm it's an unlawful assembly," Breshears replied. "We want to arrest everybody within that circle there."
Plaintiff Katie Loncke, 26, of Oakland said she hoped the agreement would allow protesters to "be able to engage in dissent without fear of arrest."
The deal calls for Loncke and three other plaintiffs representing the class to receive $9,000 each, with the others splitting $639,000. Their arrest records would be sealed and destroyed. Their attorneys would receive $350,000.
Copyright 2013 - San Francisco Chronicle
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
